Self-opening bottle cap



y 7, 1966 G. L. ROY ETAL 3,251,498

SELF-OPENING BOTTLE CAP Filed Dec. 5, 1963 INVENTOR.

G ERALD L. ROY

United States Patent 3,251,498 SELF-OPENING BOTTLE CAP Gerald L. Roy, Lancaster Township, Lancaster County, Pa., assignor to Armstrong Cork Company, Lancaster, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Filed Dec. 5, 1963, Ser. No. 328,332 3 Claims. (Cl. 215-39) This invention relates to a crown closure, and more particularly to a crown closure which can be removed without the use of the conventional pry-off opening devrce.

The conventional crown closure is crimped on a bottle in such manner that the serrated skirt is bent into engagement with a crimping bead surrounding the opening in the bottle neck. In order to remove the crown from sealing engagement with the bottle lip, a suitable I removing tool is inserted under the skirt with a fulcrum point on the top of the crown. By exerting an upward thrust on the opening device the skirt is pried outwardly and upwardly over the sealing bead. Recently attempts have been made to introduce crown closures which may be removed without the aid of the conventional removal tool. These closures are provided with a tear tab which extends from the skirt of the crown in a downward direction along the exterior of the container neck. This tear tab is engaged by the fingers and the closure is torn or mutilated so that it can be removed from the container without the aid of a tool.

These tear tab type crowns currently on the market have two main disadvantages. Due to the outwardly directed tear tab these crowns will not function properly in the capping equipment designed to accommodate circular crowns presently in use in the bottling plants of the bottlers. Secondly, more metal is required in forming the crown because they cannot be formed from a circular blank punched from a metal sheet but instead an irregularly-shaped blank must be stamped from the sheet to provide the tear tab.

In the crown of this invention the tear tab is punched from the dome of the crown and score lines extend from this tab to the periphery of this dome-shaped top. These score lines both terminate at the outer periphery of the disc-shaped top, portion, but one of these score lines is resumed-in the skirt of the crown extending from the radius between the skirt and dome to the bottom edge of the serrated skirt. The crown is provided with a liner of gas impervious material which prevents leakage through this punched and scored portion of the crown. The pressure developed within the container forces the gas impervious liner up into firm engagement with the crown so that the tab will stand above the surface of the cap for easy engagement for removal.

In order that this invention may be more readily understood it will be described in connection with the attached drawing in which FIGURE 1 is a top plan view of a crown of my invention FIGURE 2 is a cross-sectional view of the crown of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 shows the crown in sealing position on a bottle;'

LFIGURE 4 shows a modified form of the invention;

FIGURE 5 shows a plan view of the crown liner of this invention, and

FIGUREfi shows a cross-sectional view of the liner.

Referring to FIGURE 1 there is shown a crown 2 having a serrated skirt 3 for engagement with the crimping bead 4 of a container 5. A tab 6 is provided in the center of the crown 2 in the dome area 7 of the top of the crown. The tab' is formed by punching through the metal of the crown in approximately 300 of a circle.

- 3,251,498 Patented May 17, 1966 From the .two ends 10 of this 300 circle there are provided two score lines 8 and 9 which penetrate through approximately 70% of the thickness of the sheet metal from which the crown is made. Both of the score lines 8 and 9 extend from the point 10 to the edge :11 of the top portion of the crown, or to the point where the dome of the crown meets the skirt. A score line 12 is provided on the skirt 3 in alignment with the score line 9. The score line 9 is not continuous from the point 10 to the bottom edge of the skirt because it would break open on the radius between the skirt and the dome during the forming step.

The annulus portion 13 of the dome of the crown which lies outside the tab portion '6 is sufliciently narrow that it can be rllexed so as to permit the skirt of the crown The crown 2 has a polyethylene liner 14 placed therein which is adhesively secured to the interior surface of the crown in the annulus area 13 so as to leave the tab free of any adhesive securement. This adhesive has sufticient tackiness to hold the liner in the crown and remove the liner from the lip of the container as the crown is removed from the container. It is preferable that the liner be not adhesively secured to the tab.

The sealing liner 14 is of a rather unique shape to ensure a positive seal even though the top of the crown has a circular tab. '6 cut therefrom. The sealing liner 14 has a heavy central section 15 which is of a diameter slightly greater than the diameter of the tab cut through the metal of the crown. Surrounding this heavy central section v15 is a rather thin annular section 16 which is of substantially the same outer diameter as the interior diameter of the crown. Two concentric rings 17 are provided on this annular section '16 and lie directly over the sealing surface 18 of the container 5 when the crown is placed in sealing position thereon.

The periphery of the liner is provided with a rather heavy downwardly extending flange 1-9 which aids in forming an auxiliary seal on the outer finish 20 of the container to which the crown is aflixed in sealing position. factured the sealing liner is placed in the crown and the crown remains in substantially the same shape as a con- 'ventional crown. After the crown has been placed in sealing position on a container the pressure within the container causes the sealing liner to bulge slightly in the area of the reinforced portion 15 which raises the tab 6 as shown in FIGURE 3. The reinforced heavy central section 15 of the liner which is of a diameter greater than the diameter of the tab engages the annulus 13 of the crown which prevents further bulging of the liner. This raises the tab 6 a distance sufiicient to insert the'thum'bnail beneath the tab to pry it upward to rupture the metal of the-crown dome and skirt for easy removal.

In the tearing operation the score line 9 and the score line 8 extend over the top of the crown to the edge. The entire area between the score lines is removed to the edge. A score line 12 resumes beyond the radius where the dome meets the skirt making it possible by a slight twist of the tab to rupture the metal down over the edge of the skirt on one side of the tab only. A continued twist causes the crown to flex in the annulus area '13 and open at the rupture line so that the crown can be released from its engagement with the crimping bead on the container for removal from the container by one continuous operation from the time the metal rupturing forceis first applied.

With this arrangement when the crown is manu Because of the arrangcment here illustrated the upward pressure of the gas within the container which bulges the liner does not cause the liner to disengage from the sealing surface of the container. On the contrary, the

, metal annulus 13 which is forced into engagement with the sealing surface of the container when the crown is crimped in position remains firm and there is less likelihood of this annulus 13 being raised with this arrangement than with the conventional crown in which the entire dome of the crown is in one piece.

, In those cases where it is not desired to remove the crown from the container, the tab 6 can merely be bent out of the way and the liner portion 15 exposed in the open area can be perforated with a sharp object such as a knife and a straw inserted for removal of the contents of the container through the straw.

One of the advantages of this type of easy removal crown is that the amount of metal required is the same as the amount required for the conventional crown which utilizes the pry-01f type opener. Another advantage is that there are no tabs projecting from the edge of the crown skirt to prevent free passage of the crown through the chutes of the conventional capping equipment. Also,

i when the tab is punched from the crown, the metal remains in the same plane and is not raised above the crown until the crown is placed in sealing engagement on a container at which time the pressure within the container raises the tab. This raising of the tab occurs only after the crown has passed through the capping equipment.

It will be obvious from the foregoing that I have developed a crown which has an easy self-removal feature in the form of a tab cut from the top portion of the crown so that the crown can be removed from its sealing engagement with the container without the aid of a pry-off tool but at the same time the crown has the same general shape and configuration as a conventional crown, can be cut from the metal sheets in the same manner as previously employed and will operate in the capping equiment in the same manner as the conventional crown. The tab arrangement does not interfere with the seal eifected by the crimping head which places the crown in position in the container, and if desired, the arrangement is such that the contents of the container can be removed without the actual removal of the crown from its crimping engagement with the container.

I claim:

1. A crown closure comprising a metallic shell having a top and a depending serrated skirt for engagement with the crimping bead on the neck of a container, said metallic shell being provided in its top portion with a tab cut from the metallic shell, a pair of score lines connecting said cut tab with the periphery of the top of said metallic shell, a single score line in alignment with one of the first mentioned score lines extending in a direction parallel to the serrationsin the skirt of the crown, a liner adhesively secured within the crown for sealing engagement with the lip of a container, a thick reinforced section in the center of said liner positioned irmnediately beneath the tab of the crown, said reinforced section being of an area greater than the area of the tab cut from the metallic shell, a relatively thin annulus surrounding said heavy liner section, a plurality of sealing rings on said relatively thin annulus, and an outer sealing ring on the periphery of said thin annulus.

2. A crown closure comprising a metallic shell having a top and a depending serrated skirt for engagement with the crimping head on the neck of a container, said metallic shell being provided in its top portion with a circular tab cut from the metallic shell, a pair of score lines connecting said cut tab with the periphery of the top of said crown, said score lines being parallel to one another and in relatively close proximity to one another, a single score line in alignment with one of the first mentioned score lines extending in a direction parallel to the serrations on the skirt of the crown, a liner adhesively secured within the crown for sealing engagement with the lip of a container, a circular thick reinforced section in the center of said liner, said reinforced section being concentric with and of an area greater than the area of the circular tab cut from the metal of the crown, a relatively thin annulus surrounding said heavy section, a plurality of sealing rings on said relatively thin annulus, and an outer sealing ring on the periphery of said thin annulus.

3. A crown closure comprising a metallic shell having a top and a depending serrated skirt for engagement with the crimping bead on the neck of a container, said metallic shell being provided in its top portion with a circular tab cut from the metallic shell, a pair of score lines connecting said out tab with the periphery of the top of said crown, said score lines being parallel to one another and in relatively close proximity to one another, a single score line in alignment with one of the first mentioned score lines extending in a direction parallel to the serrations on the skirt of the crown, a liner adhesively secured within said crown for sealing engagement with the lip of a container, the portion of said liner in juxtaposition to said cut-out tab being reinforced to prevent its extended projection through the opening provided by the tab, said reinforced area being concentric with and of an area greater than the area of the circular tab cut from the metal of the crown, a relatively thin annulus surrounding said heavy section, a plurality of sealing rings on said relatively thin annulus, and an outer sealing ring on the periphery of said thin annulus.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS- 1,002,079 8/1911 Parker 2l546 2,069,410 2/1937 Hochstader 21539 2,752,059 6/ 1956 Schneider. 2,768,762 10/1956 Guinet 215-40 X 2,992,574 7/ 1961 Marinmaas. 3,013,687 12/1961 Gould 215-40 X FOREIGN PATENTS 924,892 5/1963 Great Britain. 75,146 6/1917 Switzerland.

JOSEPH R. LECLAIR, Primary Examiner.

FRANKLIN T. GARRETT, Examiner.

I. L. KRUTER, D. F. NORTON, Assistant Examiners. 

1. A CROWN CLOSURE COMPRISING A METALLIC SHELL HAVING A TOP AND A DEPENDING SERRATED SKIRT FOR ENGAGEMENT WITH THE CRIMPING BEAD ON THE NECK OF A CONTAINER, SAID METALLIC SHELL BEING PROVIDED IN ITS TOP PORTION WITH A TAB CUT FROM THE METALLIC SHELL, A PAIR OF SCORE LINES CONNECTING SAID CUT TAB WITH THE PERIPHERY OF THE TOP OF SAID METALLIC SHELL, A SINGLE SCORE LINES IN ALIGNMENT WITH ONE OF THE FIRST MENTIONED SCORE LINES EXTENDING IN A DIRECTION PARALLEL TO THE SERRATIONS IN THE SKIRT OF THE CROWN, A LINER ADHESIVELY SECURED WITHIN THE CROWN FOR SEALING ENGAGEMENT WITH THE LIP OF A CONTAINER, A THICK REINFORCED SECTION IN THE CENTER OF SAID LINER POSITIONED IMMEDIATELY BENEATH THE TAB OF THE CROWN, SAID REINFORCED SECION BEING OF AN AREA GREATER THAN THE AREA OF THE TAB CUT FROM THE METALLIC SHELL, A RELATIVELY THIN ANNULUS SURROUNDING SAID HEAVY LINER SECTION, A PLURALITY OF SEALING RINGS ON SAID RELATIVELY THIN ANNULUS, AND AN OUTER SEALING RINGS ON THE PERIPHERY OF SAID THIN ANNULUS. 